


bloody hands

by lateshifter



Series: Whumptober 2018 [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Whumptober 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-28 05:29:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16235123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lateshifter/pseuds/lateshifter
Summary: Sarah deals with a promise she couldn't keep.





	bloody hands

It’s with bloody hands that she scoops up the ashes and bones. She tries to gather as much as she can in the center of her jacket spread out on the floor. Are they the boy’s, some other victims, the monster itself which crumbled to dust when the final blow was dealt. But she can’t bring back nothing, she promised. Promised his parents that she would bring him home and the compulsion to keep it makes her hands tremble. Tim tugs at her shoulder trying to pull her back to the exit. Around them the cave shakes, the creature made up most of its support structure and without it, it’s collapsing. Already chunks of saliva soaked dirt and stone are raining down around them. 

“Come on! Leave it!” Tim shouts over the grinding sounds of stone and whatever words are tumbling like a torrent out of her mouth. She can’t hear them herself. 

A stalactite falls from the ceiling spearing right through a cow skull inches from them and Tim takes her momentary jump of surprise to wrap both arms around her waist and haul her backward. In desperation, she pulls the corners of the jacket together forming a little bundle against her chest. Flakey grey ashes still spill down her front.

She offers the bundle to the mother, still coated in dirt and blood and ashes. The woman shoves her backward, beating at her arms with closed fists, tears of anger and grief streaming down her face until Sarah loses her grip on the bundle. A heavy femur falls to the tile floor and cracks in half. Both women watch it for a long moment. The scorched black bone ringed with teeth marks. A shocked sob comes from the mother, then she’s falling to her knees grasping at the bone. The husband crouches beside her, rubbing her arms and whispering meaningless assurances but the glare he gives Sarah freezes her blood. She is not forgiven.

Carefully, she lays the jacket down on the floor to expose the little pile of remains. She retreats like from a wild animal, without turning her back. 

At the door, she gazes dry-eyed at the tableau.

“I’m sorry. We were just too late,” even to her the words sound hollow, meaningless. On the doorstep, Tim and Finley are waiting. It’s obvious they heard everything. 

Sarah can’t look them in the eye. 

“Hey,” Tim says clearing his throat. “They’re overreacting.”

“They’re really not.”

“What I mean is it’s not your fault.”

“Maybe.” There’s a gnawing pain in her stomach and her head is pounding. Stiffly she shoulders past them. “I’ll walk home.”

“That’s an hour away by car. It’ll take you forever,” Finley calls after her but Sarah is already walking away.

Tim shakes his head. 

“Let her go. I think she needs it.”

It’s late when the door finally opens and Sarah stumbles in. She stinks of whiskey and her hands are bleeding again, knuckles busted open and raw. Smears of blood follow her from the doorway to the couch where she collapses and falls asleep immediately. 

The next day it’s like nothing ever happened.

**Author's Note:**

> The monster referenced here is my take on a wyrm. They are a type of dragon with no limbs and the long scaly body of a snake. In this case, I modeled it off a predatory insect or deep sea creature forming a cocoon around itself disguised as a hill and waiting for unsuspecting prey to pass by. It likes to swallow its victims whole and cough up their scorched remains.


End file.
